It is still scandal, more to come

The Minister of Natural Resources in Iraq's Kuridstan Regional Government, Ashti Hawrami is now asking Norway's DNO International ASA to "find ways to remedy, and to our full satisfaction, the damage done to the KRG reputation," the KRG Web site says.

And in a bid to present himself as an honest man who raged by the reveal for his name by Oslo Stock Exchange as the secret middleman to sell DNO's shares to Turkey's Genel Enerji, Hawrami ordered the suspension of all DNO's oil operations in the region for six weeks until it finds these ways.And if not he will terminate the DNO's involvement in the region.

I challenge you that you will not to do it Mr. Hawrami.And it is still a scandal and I'm sure that more scandals will come soon.

Dear Mr. Hawrami, nothing in the Iraqi law allows you to do what you said it was "with the sole intention of helping DNO to raise the capital required for its projects in the Kurdistan Region" and "to be supportive of the companies working in the Kurdistan Region."

Simply put, you have breached Iraq's Penalty Law No. 111 in 1969 and the Civil-servant Disciplinary Law No. 14 in 1991.

Both laws say that any civil servant in the Iraqi government, from the lowest levels to the president of the state, has no right by any mean to practice any work outside his governmental job especially the commercial activities.

Such acts, which you described as to fall in your "official capacity as minister, and not on a personal basis", are considered by these two laws as either bribe or exploiting governmental position for raising money illegally. The penalty for the two cases could send you to the prison for up to three years.

And therefore, the regional parliament has the right now to summoned you for investigation, but just like other Iraqi officials I'm sure you will say "I'm not an Iraqi citizen, I hold another nationality so the Iraqi law doesn't apply on me."

Am I right?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Disappearing marshlands

Iraq's once-lush southern marshlands area is disappearing as it has reached almost the same level during Saddam-era, a report issued in a UN-affiliated Web Site says.

The UN IRINnews gives scary figures; from 8,350sqkm in 1973 to 835sqkm by 2003 due to upstream dam construction in Iraq, Turkey and Iran and Saddam's drainage operations to chase down Shiite insurgents.

By 2006-2007 only about 75 percent of the marshlands as they were in the 1970s had been restored.But now only 10-12 percent of the current marshland area is covered by water due to low water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates and below average rainfall.

What else Iraq is going to lose?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Sorry for misunderstanding you

The Minister of Natural Resources in Iraq's self-ruled Kurdistan Regional Government, Ashti A. Hawrami, was not working for his pocket sake when acted as a secret middleman in a transaction of 43 million DNO International shares last year.But instead his intention was to be "supportive" as much as he can to the western oil companies working in the KRG.

That's the core of the Sept. 19th statementt made by KRG which written by Hawrami's senior adviser, Dr. Khaled Salih, to face the scandal that had come to surface a day before with publishing the results of a probe done by Oslo Stock Exchange which found that the deal was arranged the between Hawrami and DNO Chief Executive Officer Helge Eide.

Salih said facilitating the treasury shares transaction was a "sole intention of helping DNO to raise the capital required for its projects" in KRG. WOW!, IT SOUNDS THAT DNO KNOWS ONLY KRG AND ITS HAWRAMI IN THIS WORLD TO OFFER SUCH A HELP.

He added: "We wish to make it absolutely clear that neither the KRG nor any of its ministries, officials, employees or advisers has benefited directly or indirectly, through DNO or Genel Enerji, from the transaction or subsequent resale of the shares referred to by OSE." O REALLY!, GOOD TO TELL ME THAT...SORRY FOR MISUNDERSTANDING YOU.

I would like to ask Dr. Salih this question: does the the Iraqi law permit Hawrami to offer such a help? Only one law permits your master to do so; it is your law according to which you granted more than two dozens of production sharing contracts on no-bid basis to these companies.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

The secret middleman and Salih

The first scandal for the Minister of Natural Resources in Iraq's self-ruled Kurdistan Regional Government, Ashti A. Hawrami, has just come to surface, a report by Bloomberg News reveals.

The Sept. 18 report says that a probe by Oslo Stock Exchange found that Hawrami was the secret middleman in a transaction of 43 million DNO International shares last year. And the transaction was arranged between Hawrami and DNO Chief Executive Officer Helge Eide.

That simply helps to understand Hawrami's underground deals with the international companies that have secured lucrative deals in northern Iraq on no-bid basis. I'm sure that there will be more to come in the coming days or months or years about this man and his vague deals.

According to a Sept. 6 report by Reuters, Hawrami was expected to be reappointed in the yet-to-be-formed new KRG government by former Kurdish deputy prime minister, Dr. Barham Salih.

Salih now faces his first exam.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Iraq-Shell gas deal delayed or not?

Once again Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussein al-Shahristani issues statements differ from the ones his close aides issue and that could explain a gap between the politician and the technocrat inside the Ministry of Oil. Or what the politician and the technocrat want.

Few days ago, senior Deputy Oil Minister, Ahmed al-Shamaa told Reuters that the Iraq-Royal Dutch Shell final deal to make use of the flared gas in the south was likely to be postponed until after the Jan. 16 national elections, citing current political strife. It was planned to be finalized this month.

But al-Shahristani, a politician more than anything else, denied Wednesday that the multi-billion-dollar deal will be postponed, the Dow Jones Newswire's Hassan Hafidh reported from Vienna. "No," al-Shahristani told reporters when asked if the deal is going to be postponed. "We are negotiating with Shell," he added.

Al-Shahristani is in dire need to collect as much as he can from the "achievements cards" to face his political foes when summon by the parliament and to enhance his position when runs in the coming elections along with Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

While al-Shamaa, an advocate to the deal, is realizing that he deal will be dead if it will be negotiated by the current government.Al-Shamaa's comments also reflected he desire of Shell for not signing the deal with outgoing government.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Hussain al-Shahristani sounds to get important card

It sounds that Japan's Nippon Oil Corp. and its partners offer to develop Iraq's promising southern Nassiriya oil field, and may be to construct a 300,000-barrel-a-day refinery, has won the hearts of the Iraqi oil officials.

Reuters' Missy Ryan and Ahmed Rasheed reported today that the two sides are planing to finalize the deal next week when representatives from Nippon Oil Corp., Inpex Corp. and plant engineering firm JGC Corp. visit Baghdad.

It sounds that the latest visit by Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, to Tokyo helped to push the negotiations with the Nippon-led consortium steps forward to leave Italy's Eni and Spain's Repsol behind in the race.

The battered al-Shahristani will likely move quickly with the deal to have a card to be used against his foes at the parliament as pressure is amounting to summon him and to be used also for his elections campaign.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Still more past lessons need to consider

It sounds that the Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain al-Shahristani has learned from the lessons of his disappointed 1st bidding round and decided to make his 2nd bidding round a success.

Expert Ruba Husari, who runs Iraq Oil Forum called last Tuesday road show presentation in Istanbul for the ten oil projects on offer "impressive" and predicted that the process would be a "straightforward piece of work."

As usual, Husari is ahead of other news agencies in revealing the contents of the offered contracts and other details of the process. One of these things is that the Oil Ministry is now giving the International Oil Companies the right to fully operate the fields.

Another change in the offered contract, which aims at alleviating domestic worries, is to add a clause states that in case of conflict it's the Arabic version of the contract that prevails not the English one, Husari added.

Despite that such changes, and probably many others, in the way of thinking is crucial to win the 2nd bidding round but other changes in the mentality of dealing with the domestic audience is also badly needed.

The Oil Ministry needs to successfully marketing the plans domestically to have the public opinion support and this also needs to learn from previous lessons when oil officials didn't pay attention to that point and then the opponents managed to mess the stage.

The officials need to adopt a new media strategy such as going on public from time to time in foreign and local media outlets and not only talking about the plans when they travel abroad. They need to hold weekly press conferences or round tables or issue statements on the latest developments.

They need also to cooperate with non-governmental organizations that deal with economic issues or universities to organize seminars and meetings on this bidding round. They need to invite proposals from experts whether inside or outside Iraq.

The coming bidding round will be in the core of the January’s elections campaigning and that winning the pubic hearts is vital to be a success.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Savvy, hypocrite or man of controversies?

What the State-run Al-Iraqiya TV reported today prompted me to write again.

It said that Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, met Saturday night in his office in Bagdhad's fortified Green Zone with a "delegation" from a prominent Shiite militant group which is backed by Iran and known of its atrocities against civilians and brazen and sophisticated attacks against Iraqi and occupation forces.

Yes, it is Asaib Ahl al-Haq group, or League of the Righteous, who broke away from anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and started to work on its own with money, weapons, training and everything from Iran.

Their acts ranged from sectarian killings to kidnappings and blackmailing to leading daring and sophisticated attacks such as the killing of five U.S. soldiers in an inroad on a local government headquarters in Karbala province on Jan. 2007 and the May 2007 kidnapping of five Britons from inside the Finance Ministry in Baghdad.

Two of the Brits are confirmed dead, two others are believed to be dead and the fifth one is believed still alive.

Of course all these acts were considered by the government, top of it al-Maliki himself, and other politicians as terrorism and the group's members were considered as enemies to the democracy and stability of the the "New Iraq."

Al-Iraqiya said that both sides discussed "the support of the political process and the government's efforts in the national reconciliation project." WHAT??? EXCUSE ME!

Then al-Maliki's fabulous spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told reporters after the meeting: "the delegation of Asaib Ahl al-Haq group announced its support to the political process and dismiss the violence and support of national unity's efforts." WONDERFUL!

And "both sides agreed to solve the pending problems, especially the detainees' file, whom their hands have not been stained with Iraqis' blood and with no criminal evidences against them." HEHEHE...

What a hell this al-Maliki is doing or what kind of a message he wants to send and to who?

He always says that he will not tolerate Saddam Hussein's dissolved Baath party and Sunni militant groups for their killings to innocent Iraqis and now he shakes hands with this group's members who killed hundreds of people.He always appreciates the occupation forces' "sacrifices for liberating Iraq," and even visited the cemetery of U.S. soldiers who are killed in Iraq and now he invites some of their killers to his office.

Is this al-Maliki a savvy politician? or hypocrite? or a man of controversies?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Last minute statement

Iraq's Kurds on Sunday renewed their stance against the federal Oil Minister, Hussain al-Shahristani and his first oil bidding round to develop eight oil and gas fields.

The statement comes two days before al-Shahristani's appearance before the parliament and other executives to discuss the auction process and eight days before the award of the contracts to the bidding companies.

Khaled Salih, Senior Advisor to the semi-autonomous region's Prime Minister and Minister of Natural Resources, brought everything in the statement he wrote on behalf the two as a latest attempt to mess up everything.

kassakhoon@gmail.com

Fronts against Hussain al-Shahristani

As Iraq is heading to wrap up its first post-Saddam oil bidding round to develop six oil fields and two gas fields, different fronts are being opened against the rounds' engineer: the country's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani by using all the means in bids to confuse the bidding companies and derail the process.

One of these "mean" means came from al-Shahristani's main foe: the Natural Resources Minister of Kurdistan Regional Government, Asthi Hawrami who has implicitly threaten, through Reuters' writer Mohammed Abbas, the oil companies willing to develop two of the offered fields in the disputed province of Kirkuk.

"They will be on shaky ground. Speaking about fields in the disputed territories, the contractors will not actually have a chance to work on the ground. I cannot see how they will have the security and support they need in these disputed territories without the KRG being party in providing that help," Mr. Hawrami told Abbas on Thursday.

What an irony, Mr. Hawrami, who signed more than 20 controversial production-sharing contracts on his own and none knows anything about their terms, wants to be consulted by the central government who has to take his permission to develop the two Kirkuk oil fields on offer!!!.

Why you didn't consult the central government on your ambiguous deals Mr. Hawrami?

Now would you please tell me Mr. Hawrami what these companies will face if al-Shahristani will not consult you? will you send your peshmerga or any of your secret security forces to kidnap oil executives in Kirkuk or plant roadside bombs or park car bombs on their way to these fields? is that constitutional or legal Mr. Hawrami to publish such threats in the media? are you a politician or a gang man?

The other front to al-Shahristani was opened by the Head of State-run South Oil Co. Fayad al-Nema who also through Reuters' Abbas renewed Thursday his rejection to the first bidding round as "useless and won't serve the Iraqi economy."

I don't know where Mr. al-Nema was since the announcement of this round a year ago , why he didn't express his rejection as he was heading the Minsitry's Planning and Studies Department ? and why he issued such statements during the past week which surprised many in the industry? may be just to bring the lights towards him as he was newly appointed to this position, why not.

In addition to these two guys, the governor of disputed Kirkuk, a Kurd, who also copied his fellow statements and Iraq's former oil minister, Mohammed Bahr al-Ulom. In addition to them the Parliament's Oil and Gas Committee which is headed by a Kurd and one of his main aid is Jabir Khalifa Jabir from Shiite Fadhila party, a main rival to al-Shahristani's party.

And another question mark is that why Reuters published today what it did publish over the past few days based on the same comments from the same persons?

Does that mean that media outlets are also opening fronts against al-Shahristani?

kassakhoon@gmail.com

New cock in the neighborhood

A new cock just started to crow in Iraq's western desert, where Anbar province stretches, to get his share from the Iraqi hydrocarbon resources. He is Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, the head of the influential Awakening Council in Iraq which hold remarkable seats in the newly-founded Anbar Provincial Council.

It sounds that during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, the Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum whispered to Abdu Risha about how promising the Akkaz gas field is, unleashing his imagination on how much money this field on the border with Syria can bring to his pocket.

He now alleges that he has a "written approval" from Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to start negotiations with the Crescent Petroleum to develop the field, but Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, opposes it.The same allegations the Kurds say to justify their deals but have not presented this "written approval" yet.

In an interview with the Dubai-based al-Arabia satellite channel on Friday, Abu Risha added that the company is ready to enter to Anbar province, pump millions of dollars to develop the field, build a 3,600-megawatt electricity power plant and create 100,000 Job opportunities.

He also alleges that the constitution gives his Provincial Council the right to do so and gives him the right also to reject all the Oil Minister's decisions.

How smart move from the Crescent Petroleum in a bid to copy the same deal it secured with the Kurds and how clever our sheik is who doesn't know that Akkaz field is offered in the first bidding round that is planned to be finalized next month.He also doesn't know what the law says about his Provincial Council's authorizations.

This is only one of cocks I talked about in my 14 May post....what you think?

kassakhoon@gmail.com